UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole nation is looking at this race. Now
it`s not hyperbole.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole country`s waiting for your choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us tonight, folks. Thanks for
watching. Let`s talk about Virginia, its women`s rights, its voting
rights, its health care.

In fact, Cuccinelli says, "This is a referendum on ObamaCare."
Really, and he`s scared about ObamaCare. Of course, the state are part out
of it so it`s the federal exchange that scares the hell out of him.

How about these numbers? 7.8 million people live in the state of
Virginia, over a million people have no insurance. That`s roughly 14
percent of the population and Ken Cuccinelli is afraid that the 14
percenters they might get helped? Oh, yes, for he`s been close eye on
Virginia.

This race could really be a big set back for the Tea Party. I mean,
when Marco Rubio goes to stamp for this guy and says that the country is
watching you, I`ll take those odds. The latest poll shows Democrat Terry
McAuliffe beating fringe Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli by 6 points,
the polls of course are going to be open until 7:00 tonight Eastern Time.
Get out and vote.

Cuccinelli has been a vocal opponent of ObamaCare and he has made it
clear that he will kick and scream every step of the way to stop Virginians
from getting health care. He`s opponent, Terry McAuliffe sees the world
differently. No doubt he will embrace the Affordable Health Care Act.

Now, Ken Cuccinelli has made this election a referendum on ObamaCare.
Just listen to the rhetoric. Cuccinelli`s campaign pits out on the
campaign trail.

CUCCINELLI: Tomorrow in Virginia is a referendum on ObamaCare. I was
the first attorney general to sue on ObamaCare just about 30 to 35 minutes
after the dent signed the bill. That health are law will only get worse.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) FLORIDA: And this race is a very clear choice
between a strong supporter of it and the first attorney general in America
stood up against.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R) KENTUCKY: Ken Cuccinelli was the first attorney
general to sue over ObamaCare.

CUCCINELLI: We are seeing before our eyes the destruction that this
program is reaping on liberty itself on our health care, on our economy, on
families, and it`s all across the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: There is competition, there is choice, there`s lives being
saved, and cost are being reduced and they`re against it. If Cuccinelli
loses, it`s a clear sign that the voters want ObamaCare. His referendum on
ObamaCare will backfire. It will be a gift to the Democrats in 2014. The
last thing Republicans want is for Virginia to look something like
Kentucky.

When I was in Kentucky on Monday visiting the poll center for the
state health exchange, I saw a very organized machine as we reported last
night. Now, it`s over 33, 000 people who have signed up. The state is
expecting half of the 640,000 people in the state of Kentucky who do not
have health insurance to sign up before the first of the year.

Who could be against that? This is the way ObamaCare was supposed to
work. Carrie Banahan is the Executive Director of Kentucky`s Health
Insurance Exchange. She told me community outreach is key to having a
successful exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: You`ve been to every county in the state, how important has
that been?

CARRIE BANAHAN, DIRECTOR, KY HCR EXCHANGE: You know, that`s one of
the important things our office has done is to go out and do outreach and
education. Speaking engagements so we have 11 this week to get the word
about Kinect and advise people what the requirements are.

We`ve had public forums. We have Kinecters in different areas of the
state, who also a responsible for education as well as enrolling folks.

SCHULTZ: What are the consumer saying? I mean, they don`t care about
the politics so are they -- what are they saying? What`s the reaction?

BANAHAN: You know, it`s interesting because when we`ve attended health
fairs and community events and baseball games, we don`t hear about the
politics. The main concern is folks are interested in information. They
know someone that doesn`t have insurance. Their son or daughter doesn`t
have insurance. So, they`re just thirsty for information on how to apply
and what the qualifications are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: So, where is the push back? Where is the march? Why is
that that every time Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia talks about health care,
only about 100 people show up? I mean, if every state adapted the Kentucky
model, we wouldn`t be hearing all these negative stuff and problems with
ObamaCare. 27 states including Virginia have opted out of creating
exchanges causing problems obviously for the federal government to set up
the federal exchange. They didn`t expect it. The good news is, they`re
working out the kings. More testimony came today in the Senate hearing and
Obama Administration officials are saying that they are fixing the
problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARILYN TAVENNER, CMS ADMINISTRATOR: We are now able to process
nearly 17,000 registrants per hour or 5 per second with on this no errors.
We`ve updated the site several times since October 1, fixing bugs and
improving the HealthCare.gov experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Now, she came to Capitol Hill today and gave some numbers.
I love numbers. I love absolutes. I love facts unlike Hannity. If
Republican governors would have actually governed and set up state
exchanges, obviously, the law would be working a heck of a lot better, the
architects of ObamaCare weren`t expecting this massive push back from
Republican politicians of obstruction. They might have planned differently
if they knew that this was coming. This is why I think we got to be
talking about round two on the Democratic side. Round two of health care
and let`s revisit the public option.

So if Marco Rubio wants to show up in Virginia and if Ken Cuccinelli
wants to embrace all these obstructionists, it`s all crystal clear, isn`t
it? These people do not want those who do not have insurance to get it.

Meanwhile, a new report out today shows 17 million people will qualify
for subsidies under ObamaCare. This is what not being reported. If you
earned $46,000 a year or less, you would qualify for tax credits to reduce
the cost of monthly premiums. That`s good news.

And if you are in $29,000 a year or less and there`s a lot of
Americans that are there, we`ll explain that later in this broadcast about
just what 29 grand is to the working folk of America in this country. You
can get additional subsidies to cover out of pocket cost like co-pays.
These are the details that well Fox just isn`t talking about. And if
you`re wondering how many people in this country make about $29,000 a year,
stick around, we`ve got some staggering numbers for you on that a little
bit later on.

Get your cellphones out. I want to know what you think tonight`s
question. Will Red State governors pay a political price for not
implementing ObamaCare? Text A for Yes, text B for No to 67622. You can
always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com and leave a comment there especially
about Virginia and of course we`ll bring you the results later on in this
show.

For more on this, I want to bring in the Senator from Iowa, Tom Harkin
who is on the ground floor of the Affordable Care Act. He (inaudible) back
this thing through committee. Senator, good to have you with us tonight.

SEN. TOM HARKIN (D) IOWA: Always good to be with you, Ed. Thanks.

SCHULTZ: You bet. We`re you expecting this level of push back from
the Red States. I mean, when ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act was being
put together, was there conversation in committee that, you know what,
we`re going to run into all this obstruction, lot of the states aren`t
going to take it and we`re going to have to fix this.

HARKIN: Ed, I`m really glad you brought this up because when we were
debating this way back when and trying to figure out how to do all this, a
lot of us on the liberal side said, "Well, OK, we`ll give something to the
states. We`ll let the states set up their own exchanges." Many
conservatives wanted to do that. So, we made that agreement. We thought
that would be a good idea. So we put it out there. And lo and behold, all
these Republican governors who get elected in 2010 and republican
legislatures and they dumped it all in the federal government.

We never expected that. Had we known that from the beginning, the
architecture of setting up the exchanges would have been a lot different.
But then they dumped in our last. If you look -- I`m glad you went to
Kentucky because Kentucky, Washington, Colorado, Rhode Island, even the
District of Columbia where they set up state exchanges, they`re working
just fine.

And now, we heard today from Marilyn Tavenner, they`re fixing this
problem. It`s a mechanical problem. There`s nothing wrong with the
Affordable Care Act, there`s nothing wrong with ObamaCare, we have a
problem, yes, and I`m upset about it just as everyone else is, but it`s
being fixed. It`s a mechanical problem and it`ll be fixed by the end of
this month.

SCHULTZ: Being able to process 17,000 people a minute is a hard
number. This is a hard number. So when you say it`s being improved, I
mean, we have something to go on there. This is testimony in the Senate
Committee.

If you could go back, if you could have crafted this differently to
avoid all this obstruction, would it be so much further along that it
wouldn`t even be a political issue?

HARKIN: Well, Ed, you said it earlier, we need a public option out
there. We needed a public option in this program. I fought hard for it.
But we didn`t get it. And probably from the very beginning, we should set
it up as a federal architecture, as a natural architecture, set it up that
way. But we thought, states wanted to do this and quite frankly it was the
states, the Republican governors, and it`s interesting, Ed, they all
campaigned didn`t they? On state`s rights? They want .

HARKIN: . the state. But then when it came to this, oh no, they
don`t want it, they want to dump it on the federal government. Keep this
thing (ph).

SCHULTZ: Well, clearly yesterday from our report from the sources on
the ground in Kentucky, it`s a job creator, more people ..

HARKIN: Right.

SCHULTZ: . are getting insurance than ever before in the state of
Kentucky such as the case with the states that you mentioned. And Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded to the success of ObamaCare in
his home state of Kentucky today.

He said, "85 percent of the people who`ve signed up in Kentucky have
signed up for Medicaid, that`s free health care. If you want to give out
free health care, you`re going to have a lot of interest just like free
anything else. So I know there`s been a great effort on the part of the
Administration and the Governor of Kentucky to paint a pretty picture."

Well, let me show you the picture that Mitch McConnell paints. He is
in favor of corporations not paying their fair share. He`s OK with one in
four corporations in this country not paying any tax. He`s in favor of
allowing oil companies who are making record profits to get away with
taxpayer subsidies. So this still is a matter of priorities. Is Mitch
McConnell making the case to the people of Kentucky that the people who
have signed up with the preexisting conditions and over the 33,000 people
who are going to get health care and more so of the 640,000 that don`t have
it? Is he saying that they don`t deserve it because they`re not some kind
of special American that doesn`t qualify the wealthy?

I mean they`re pushback, Senator, I guess my question is, are they
running out of material?

HARKIN: They are running out. And now, it has become -- they want --
I like what was said this morning by Senator Warren in our hearing with Ms.
Tavener she said, "Really, what we`re talking about is changing a value
system." The old value system was what the Republicans want where the
insurance companies could cut you off. If you had a preexisting condition,
they wouldn`t cover you where you`re only recourse if you were forced to go
to the emergency room, that`s the old value system.

The new value system that what we`re saying, Ed, is every person in
America will be covered with health insurance that they can`t be taken away
no matter what preexisting conditions you have and you can get preventative
services upfront so you don`t have to wait to go to the emergency room.
That`s the new value system. And I`m telling you, the American people want
this new value system in health care.

SCHULTZ: Senator, you come from Iowa, middle of the country, a rural
state, farming is kind of a big deal in your backyard. I mean .

SCHULTZ: . there`s a lot of small farmers out there that are going to
be able to get some tax credits and some help when it comes to ObamaCare or
is that too pretty a picture for Mitch McConnell.

HARKIN: I`m telling you, Ed, the farmers and the small businesses in
Iowa are going to have the kind of health care coverage that they`ve never
been able to get or afford in the past.

Yes, they might have been able to afford to get some policy but it
didn`t cover anything. And there was a lot of policies out there that were
quite frankly .

SCHULTZ: Junk.

HARKIN: . crappy, junk policies. Well now, no more of those junk
policies. People will have good, solid policies. And if they`re low
incomes don`t get a subsidy, I -- You said that Mitch McConnell said most
of these people signing up in Kentucky were for Medicaid, if that`s the
case he`s got a lot of poor people in that state because you and I both
know, Ed, you got to fall down into a poverty area before you can qualify
for Medicaid.

SCHULTZ: That is exactly right. And I also find it very interesting
that Governor Beshear said that over 400 businesses, small businesses in
Kentucky have looked into the exchange and are making decisions on it, but
I didn`t hear Mitch McConnell put out any number about small businesses
whatsoever.

The bottom line here is and what is being under reported is rural
America and rural development is going to explode in a big way for the
positive because of the Affordable Care Act. That`s what`s not -- I think
being -- I think that`s being overshadowed.

HARKIN: I also think, Ed that you`re going to see a lot more
entrepreneurs starting small businesses and getting into business because
now they`ll have health care and health care coverage for their workers
which they couldn`t have before.

SCHULTZ: Senator Tom Harkin, great to have you with us tonight.
Thank you sir, I appreciate your time.

SCHULTZ: Remember to answer tonight`s questions there are at the
bottom of the screen. Share your thoughts with us on Twitter@Ed Show and
on Facebook.

And I think I`m going to have to tweet out to Senator McConnell can
you come in on the 400 businesses in your state that are going to be
signing up for Kinect?

Coming up, Preacher Cruz can see Russia from his pulpit. Ted`s dad
well his had it again. This time was some bizarre Soviet era scare
tactics. Plus Rocky politics, how progressives are fighting a war of
Northern aggression at the polls tonight. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Time now for the Trenders. Social media, this is where you
can find us, Facebook.com/edshow, twitter.com/edshow, ed.msnbc.com and on
the radio you`ll find us, weekdays, noon to 3, Sirius XM Channel 127. The
Ed Show social media nation has decided, we are reporting. This is today`s
top Trenders voted on by you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are you? All right. That`s good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The number three Trender, ID frauds.

SHARRIE WILLIAMS: Some would be voters are running into problems due
to the new rules.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s supposed to keep frauds away from the
election polls. Not a former US Congressman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former House Speaker Jim Wright is a victim of the
Texas voter ID law.

JIM WRIGHT, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: I`ve had a long career of trying to
help expand the voting privilege.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wright worries the hustle for others may keep them
away, and that bothers him.

WRIGHT: It is the American citizen that wants to vote ought to be
allowed to vote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The number two Trender, senior moment.

RAFAEL CRUZ: Communism or socialism, whatever you want to call it is
about government control of your lives.

SCHULTZ: Ted Cruz`s dad claims evolution is a communist plot.

RAFAEL CRUZ: Communism, or call it socialism if you think communism
is too hard a word.

Necessitates for government to be your God, that`s why communism and
evolution go hand in hand. See they can convince you that you came from a
monkey, it`s much easier to convince you that God does not exist.

I`m intrigue by there are 11 counties in the state of Colorado that
want to break away from Colorado and become the 51st state. Do I have that
right? Let`s -- Who and what is behind this breakaway?

RICK PALACIO, CHAIRMAN OF THE COLORADO DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Yeah, that`s
right Ed. Thanks for having me with you. Do we got 11 counties in
Northern Colorado mostly Northern Colorado that have decided that they want
to hold votes today to secede from the state and form their own state.

You know, it`s sort of like some kid threatening to run away from
home. That`s pretty much what`s going on right now.

SCHULTZ: How organized is this? Who is behind this? What do they
want their own Tea Party nation?

PALACIO: That`s a good question. You know, it looks like there are
some folks that feel like they`re disenfranchised in some of the rural
parts of the state. And they want to form their own government.

You know, what`s behind it and how organized they are, I think is yet
to be seen, that vote is going to happen today. So, we`ll see the result
of that vote.

I mean it`s really sort of all futile because we have a Democratic
control legislature here that is certainly not going to allow them to
secede and then of course it has to be taken up at the national level and
God knows that`s not going to happen considering they can`t get anything
done right now in Washington.

SCHULTZ: Well, they got it on the ballot. I mean they must have some
organization. They must have met some stipulation put out by the state to
be able to get the referendum on the ballot.

You have the -- I mean this is -- I mean for instance, I understand
that Weld County is one of them. Heck that`s what Northern Colorado
University is.

I mean it`s not like these people are totally out in the sticks. This
looks like a real organized effort to go against every law that`s been
passed since President Obama has come into the Oval Office, it`s total
rejection and now they want their own state.

PALACIO: Yeah. And, you know, they want their own state now. I
wouldn`t be surprised if they wanted their own country after this.

I mean this -- you`re absolutely right though. This is the same type
of people that make up the Tea Party and I would imagine that there are a
lot of Tea Party folks that are behind this.

It doesn`t take much in Colorado to get something on to the ballot at
the county level. So, they gathered some signatures. They had those
things certified, they send them to their clerks and now they`re on the
ballot in 11 counties just starting with one or two county commissioners in
Weld County. Some of the rightist of the Right Tea Party county
commissioners that they`ve got in Weld and it seems like it`s spreading a
little bit.

But, you know, I think the important thing here is, one of course they
need to be listened to and they feel like they`re not about being listened
to. But I would encourage them to just try to do a little bit outreach
towards the rest of the state and join the club.

Don`t take your toys and go home and that`s what they`re threatening
to do.

SCHULTZ: Fellow show me that map one more time. Now, this has a
rather strange psychology to it. How do we know that all these other
counties not the green, all the other counties aren`t going to say, "You
know, hell with those folks, one of them going to start their state."

I mean, do you know how this vote is going to turn out?

PALACIO: Yeah. You know, people in rural Colorado and urban Colorado
regardless of where you live they`re independent-minded individuals.

So, there is a similar traits that we all have. I would say that
common sense is going to prevail.

SCHULTZ: OK.

PALACIO: And that all of these ballot measures are going to fail.

SCHULTZ: Well, if all the ballot measures are going to fail, because
you`ve got one of them to raise almost $1 billion for public education by
taxing the wealthiest residents of Colorado.

How is that going to play out? Because income inequality of course
has been a big subject nationwide.

PALACIO: Right. Well, I would say all of the secession ballot
measures are going to fail. You know, Ed, one of the largest inequities
that we have that exists right now is the one that exist in public
education and the way it`s funded. And Colorado is no exception to that.

You have huge disparities in the way that schools are funded in rural
parts of the state versus urban and huge disparities between kids that are
white and the kids that are minority.

So, what 66 does, is ballot measure that`s statewide. Is it proposes
to try and fix all of that and create and fix these inequities.

SCHULTZ: Well, it goes after the wealthiest residents, that`s the
bottom line. Let`s see if it works.

PALACIO: Well, see if it works. And we certainly hope that it does
work because if this is going to be a huge loss for the kids across the
state if it doesn`t.

SCHULTZ: All right. Rick Palacio, good to have you with us tonight,
I appreciate your time. Colorado want to follow up tonight.

Our Election Day coverage continues with Chris Christie and the
fleecing of New Jersey. Plus one of Dubious` (ph) buddies lands in
tonight`s Pretenders for his attack on President Obama.

But next, I`m taking your question, Ask Ed Live, just ahead, stay with
us on MSNBC.

First question coming from Aria, "What do Christian values mean to
Republicans?"

Well, Christian values not that there aren`t Christian values, but when you
put it to politicians and political operatives it not becomes a crutch to
justify anything they want in the political arena connected to Scripture
and often times they turn out to
be totally hypocritical.

So, what do Christian values mean to Republicans is just the stepping
stone, a footstool to get exactly what they want in the political arena.
They hide behind their plastic Jesus quite often, just look at some of the
things that have been said on the House floor.

Our next question comes from Judy Strollo. She wants to know why is
teaching the only occupation where experience is not valued? Well, this
too is a Republican effort to demean public education. The Republicans
basically have ignited this chain of thought and their new philosophy is,
as a teacher you`re only as good as your last test score. Everything
you`ve done in the past and those great students said have left their
classroom and gone on have been successful in life and been a good
citizens, you really didn`t have anything to do with that, you had a bad
class, you had a bad test score, so you`re a lousy teacher. That`s I guess
you could say the Chris Christie evaluation.

One thing that really bothers me about Christie in New Jersey, he is,
you know, was in the legal system, an attorney on Wall Street, no
experience, whatsoever, not professionally trained at all in education, but
all of a sudden he is the self-anointed expert on education in America and
he has all the answers. Cut $1 billion out of the system, fire 6,000
teachers, and just tell everybody that, "I`m an expert." That`s where
Chris Christie is.

So, why is teaching the only occupation where experience is not
valued? That is a Republican value to go after experienced teachers. They
don`t want to pay us.

In trade on Tuesday the Dow lost 20 points, the S&P failed 4, but the
NASDAQ managed and gained 3 points. And so, on the private sector is
showing growth US service firms expanded in October despite the government
shutdown up with a point with the Johnson (ph) sales in hiring.

T Mobile reporting revenue where 7.4 percent of the third quarter
coupled with better than expected subscriber growth. It will share
throughout the 8 percent. After topping expectations with the 6 percent
increase in revenue for the third quarter.

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the Ed Show. For reasons unknown to the Ed
Show. Some Democrats in the media think that Christie is a bipartisan
hero. In a few short hours from now, the mainstream media love affair with
Chris Christie will crank certainly right into full gear. "How did he do
it, he`s such a hero."

The New Jersey governor looks likes he`s going to, you know, lick his
competition and of course and set his sights on 2016, but I say, don`t fall
for all the hype. Christie will be painted as a reasonable Republican who
won a deeply blue state. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Christie has never met a union he didn`t want to crash. Christie has
always been bent over for millionaires who don`t want to pay their fair
share, just look at his tax policies. Christie killed an infrastructure
project that would have created thousands of jobs and helped the state of
New Jersey. Christie hates public schools and especially public school
teachers as we found out in recent days. Christie has said many times that
he is against gay marriage. He doesn`t think gay people deserve the same
rights as everyone else, I think that Chris Christie has no problem with
discrimination.

The moderate from New Jersey is no different on social issues than Ken
Cuccinelli in Virginia or Michelle Bachmann out of Minnesota. Chris
Christie is the most dangerous kind of Republican there is. He seems to
like a guy who will reach across party lines to get things done, no.
Christie will get things done. He will turn America back to the Bush era
debacle the crippled this country for years.

He is wrong-headed on so many issues, but he is probably going to win
tonight. He is the media darling here in the Big Apple. Joining me now is
our Rapid Response Panel Randi Weingarten, President of the American
Federation of Teachers, also Bob Shrum democratic strategist with us and
professor at NYU.

Great to have you with us, Randi you first, this exchange that Chris
Christie had with a teacher in recent days? Your thoughts on that.

RANDI WEINGARTEN, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: It`s a polling and
offensive. I mean, I don`t -- look the picture tells a thousand words and
this picture basically said with a governor who is comfortably in the lead,
who a year ago with Hurricane Sandy was acting like comforter in chief with
the teachers to actually put his finger up and point to her like that to
the point that she was shivering and shaking is staggering.

You don`t -- I don`t care what your policy is about education, you
don`t give the impression that the people who educate our kids should be
shouted out and hectored out.

SCHULTZ: His wife seems being entertained by it with a smile on her
face. Bob, is he politically uncoachable?

BOB SHRUM: I think he is politically himself. I think he is a
standard conservative republican. There are two factors that make them
look more moderate and explain what you we`re saying earlier.

First, Sandy was indelible.

WEINGARTEN: Right.

SHRUM: The image was indelible. He look for once like a politician
who put people ahead of politics.

WEINGARTEN: It`s kind of like what Giuliani did after 9/11.

SHRUM: Right, but Giuliani by the way who was the last so called
moderate republican was actually pro-choice and sort of for gay rights.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SHRUM: This guy is not, but the other thing is the Republican Party
has moved so far to the Right and that he looks comparatively better and
I`ll tell you what. He wouldn`t endorse the government shutdown. He maybe
forgiving all the tax rates to the millionaires, he maybe in favor of
beating up the school teachers, short changing education but on something
as fundamental is that, he decided he was going to take a stand. He looks
moderate compared to Ted Cruz, heck anybody does. The real question is
whether he will be forgiven, he has small lapses in the moderation given
his overall conservatism in Republican primary.

SCHULTZ: Personality count, I mean he is this tough
Jersey guy that just lets it roll of the cuff and people seemed to
gravitate to that.

WEINGARTEN: I know, but look at just what`s happening in New York
City which is right across the river in the same -- at the same moment.
Bill De Blasio will probably also win by a large amount today and Bill De
Blasio was talking about a whole different philosophy about how you bring
people together about how you make education the center piece.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

WEINGARTEN: About how you -- I mean where I found amazing is that
within a 12-hour period of time, De Blasio in New York was talking about
how the central issue of our time in public schools was how we recruit,
retain, and support public school teachers.

So I think that this is -- I think what you`re seeing now is that this
is a guy who gave you a contract with us in New York and it was very
pragmatic then, I think this is someone who has decided that when it works
for him. He puts his -- swags his finger and acts tough and when it
doesn`t he tries to act pragmatic and I think that will start falling on
deaf ears to people.

SCHULTZ: How does that play nationally?

SHRUM: Well, I think it`s a big -- look, it`s a great strength that
he seems authentic, that he seems real. It`s also a great weakness if it
crosses the line over in the acting like a bully.

WEINGARTEN: Yes.

SHRUM: And he`s done that several times, you know, when I think about
that school teacher, what kind of message are you sending to school kids if
you`re the governor and you`re doing this to the school teacher and you`re
hectoring the school teacher.

School teachers have enough of a challenge trying to keep their
classrooms in order these days without the governor setting that kind of
example. So I think he could get himself in a lot of trouble. He could
have a very bad moment for example in a debate with Hillary Clinton. If he
lost his temper in a debate with Hillary Clinton, he`d basically kill
himself.

SCHULTZ: Anytime he losses his temper he is very demeaning to other
people.

WEINGARTEN: I mean and this is -- so look, it feels like the governor
has a problem with anger management. That`s what it feels like but I agree
I can`t emphasize enough the point Bob just made. The note in schools, the
value of respect and dignity and civility which is in short supply in the
nation these days is so important, and when you have a governor that does
that to a school teacher who is simply trying to ask a question what signal
does it send to the entire state about civic task and about civility, and
about how we should actually comfort ourselves with each other.

SCHULTZ: Well, if he jumps in for 2016, you can bet that his counter
parts are going to be using this against him. I mean the other Republican
candidates are going to be all up.

SHRUM: You know, what`s they`re going to use against him? They`re
going to say he didn`t file a hopeless appeal in the New Jersey gay
marriage case. They`re going to use that in Iowa, they`re going to try to
make out that he is not a conservative. They`re going to attack him for
the moments of pragmatism. He had had and he`s going to have to stand
there saying, I`m a conservative, I believe in all this, and his real
question, the real choice for him is whether he`s going to pull a Mitt
Romney and decide to move further and further to the Right.

SCHULTZ: Or pull Chris Christie, the real Chris Christie please stand
up and lose his cool, right? He lose his cool in all of this. Randi, Bob
great to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.

SHRUM: Thank you Ed.

SCHULTZ: Still ahead, a staggering new numbers on income in America
and the fight for the middle class, Senator Bernie Sanders joins us for the
Punch Out. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: And in Pretenders tonight, Bush bootlegger (ph) Andy Card.
George W. Bush`s top adviser appeared on our network this morning. He was
asked about the backlash President Obama has received about Americans not
being able to keep their current care plans under ObamaCare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY CARD: Well, first of all, I fought not only the President, I
fought but people around the President for allowing him to mislead the
American people for so long. His categorical statements were made not as a
candidate but as a President of the United States and words do matter at
the White House. And it`s usually somebody in the White House that goes to
the President and says, "Mr. President, you said that, but it`s not
entirely true you put -- you got to put a caveat around it."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Wow. Andy Card served as White House Chief of Staff under
Bush from 2001 to 2006 so certainly he knows a thing or two about
Presidents and Vice Presidents misleading the public.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: The British government has learned
that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of Uranium from
Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know as I say that one of the perpetrators of
that act did in fact receive a support from the Iraqi government after
that. With respect to 9/11 of course you`ve had the story that`s been
public altered.

BUSH: America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. They
see clear evidence of peril. We cannot wait for the final proof, the
smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t recall that I gave instructions to that
effect. And certainly, I was involved because I was a big advocate of the
terrorist surveillance program.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Did Andy Card say that words matter? If Andy Card thinks
President Obama can even hold a candle to Dubious (ph) and shoot her for
misleading the public? He can keep on pretending.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to Ed Show. This is the story for the folks
who take a shower after work. We talk about it a lot income inequality.
Well, it hit record high last year with the top 1 percent of Americans
receiving the greatest share of income ever recorded by the Internal
Revenue Service.

Now, the Social Security Administration has just released wave
statistics for 2012 and the figures are staggering. The median way to has
just over $27,000 last year when adjusting for inflation, that number is
down from 2011`s median.

Now, well half of American workers earned under $27,000 the richest
Americans saw their wages climb to absolutely new heights. The number of
Americans making over $5 million or more grew by 27 percent while the
richest Americans prosper the other 99 percent of workers are left to
suffer. This vulture chart which we have shown on the Ed Show many times
illustrates the increasing gap between the top 1 percent richest Americans
and average earners, the disparaging numbers are only getting worst. It`s
going off the chart.

Senator Bernie Sanders with us tonight independent from Vermont.
Senator, good to have you with us. All of the things that you have talked
about are coming to fruition no doubt. But, Senator how does our -- an
economic recovery take place when you got wage earners going in the wrong
direction?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: Well, Ed first of all thank you
very much for discussing this issue because you are one of the few people
in the media who in fact are dealing with one of the great economic and
moral issues, moral issues facing our country. And the answer to your
question is we are having a great economic recovery if you`re on Wall
Street, if you`re in the top 1 percent, if you are one of the multinational
corporations that it`s enjoying record breaking profits. For the people on
top the economic recovery has been extraordinary, but if you are in the
middle class your wages have gone down, median family income has gone down
by $5,000 since 1999.

Ed, today, we have more people in this country living in poverty than
any time in the history of America and the gap between the very, very rich
and everybody else is growing large.

SCHULTZ: That is almost an unbelievable statement. We have more
poverty now than we`ve ever had in America`s history. And we sit there and
watch our politicians not even talk about it or do anything about it -- a
slack view such as yourself.

SANDERS: But it`s not only the politicians, it`s the media as well.

SCHULTZ: Well .

SANDERS: So we are seeing a disappearing middle class. We have the
highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. Do we
even talk about it, not alone act on it? So I thank you for being --
having the courage to get involved in this issue.

SCHULTZ: Well, Senator, no one has explained to anybody how we`re
going to have an economic recovery when you have the median income going
down in America. That means, that there`s, you know, less disposable
income for them to go out and spend in the economy .

SANDERS: Right.

SCHULTZ: . but it also restricts their ability to contribute to the
community for the basic services that communities need to survive. I mean
there`s going to have to be some kind of real tax reform to turn this
around if we`re going to have full economic recovery. We may be sitting
here at 7, 8, 9 percent unemployment for years to come. Your thoughts.

SANDERS: Well, Ed, you know, what our Republican friends are telling
us is that we have to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, nutrition,
food stamps, et cetera. And you know what the American people are saying?
They are saying overwhelmingly in poll after poll, Republican, Democrat,
Independent, "Create jobs, create the millions of jobs that this country
desperately needs."

Ed, one of the things that I worry about is not only very high
unemployment but it is even higher for young people. Kids graduating high
school have no place to go.

SCHULZ: Yeah.

SANDERS: So what we need to do is focus on job creation, raising the
minimum wage, changing our trade policy, and paying attention to the middle
class rather than the billionaires and multinational corporations.

SCHULTZ: We have a political party in this country, the Republicans
that do not view this as a problem. They don`t talk about it. They don`t
address it. They don`t even like using the term middle class. I mean
they`re all about power. How could we ever restructure -- I mean, let me
ask you this. Would this be a conversation piece in these budget
negotiations that you`re going to be involved in? I mean the numbers are
very clear.

SANDERS: I have already and will continue to talk about that. Look,
what the Budget Committee has got to do is to do what the American people
want. And what the American people want is for the wealthiest people and
the largest corporations in this country to start paying their fair share
of taxes. The American people, regardless of their ideology, want to
protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And the American people
want us to create jobs.

So my message to the Budget Committee is "Hey, let`s be very radical.
Let`s do what the American people want us to do."

SCHULTZ: Senator, you went on a Southern tour. Did you see these
numbers in real life?

SANDERS: Absolutely. Absolutely. You think it`s bad all over the
country. It is. In the Deep South, it`s even worst. And, Ed, that is why
we need to get rid of this mythology of red state, blue state. What we
need to do is focus attention on these economic issues all over this
country.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

SANDERS: Whether you`re conservative or not, people want jobs, they
want to raise incomes, they want to make college affordable. We can bring
people together on a progressive economic message. And by the way, nobody
that I know thinks it is acceptable to have this kind of grotesque
inequality in America in terms of wealth and income.

SCHULTZ: That`s exactly what it is. You know, I just wish the media
and the Republicans would put as much effort into rebuilding the middle
class as they have into selling junk insurance to us which of course has
been a big discussion in the last several weeks.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END

Copyright 2013 Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by
United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed,
transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written
permission of Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark,
copyright or other notice from copies of the content.>